Directory_and_Chronicle_1896

CANTON

201

When the foreign merchants returned to Canton to establish trade after the capturə of the city by the English at the close of 1857, they found the Factory and the buildings along the river in ruins. Recourse for accommodation was consequently had to warehouses on the Honam side of the river. Considerable discussion subsequently took place as to the selection of a site for a permanent British settlement, and it was eventually determined that an extensive mudflat known as Shameen should be filled in and appropriated. In 1859 an artificial island was created there, a canal constructed between the northern side of the site and the city, and solid and extensive embankments of masonry built. It took about two years to complete this undertaking, and cost no less than $325,000. Of this sum four-fifths were defrayed by the British, and one-fifth by the French Government, to whom a portion of the reclaimed land was given. Up to 1889 most of the French concession remained unutilised, but in that year a number of lots were sold and are now built upon. The French also received a grant of the old site of the Viceroy's Yamên, on which the Catholic Cathedral has been erected. Shameen is pleasingly laid out, and the roads are shaded with well grown trees. A neat church, called Christ Church, stands at the western end. There is good hotel accommodation. During an anti-foreign riot on the 10th September, 1883, sixteen houses and the Concordia Theatre on the settlement were burned by the mob.

In consequence of the decline in the importance of Canton as a place of trade, caused principally by the opening of some of the northern ports, many of the merchants by whom lots were purchased there in 1861, at enormous prices, withdrew from Canton altogether. The trade now transacted there by foreigners is limited. Tea and Silk are the staple exports. The total export of Tea for the year ending 31st December, 1894, was 12,380 piculs compared with 24,407 piculs in 1893, and the quantity of Raw Silk (exclusive of Refuse and Wild Silk) exported in 1894 was 20,506 piculs as compared with 20,341 piculs in 1893. These figures, however, which are taken from the Foreign Customs returns, do not give the total export, but only those in foreign vessels. Both Tea and Silk are carried in large quantities to Hongkong by junk, for transhipment. The import of Opium in 1894 was 7,631 piculs as compared with 9,215 piculs in 1893. The total value of the trade of the port for 1894 was Tls. 45,417,597 as compared with Tls. 42,496,309 in 1893.

Ample means of communication exist between Canton and Hongkong, a distance of about ninety-five miles, by foreign steamers plying daily, and a large number of native craft. There is daily steam communication with Macao. Steamers also run regularly between Shanghai, Hongkong, and Canton. There is a safe and commodious anchorage within 150 yards of the river wall at Shameen. Canton was connected by telegraph (an overland line) with Kowloon in 1883, and another overland line was completed from Canton to Lungchau-fu, on the Kwangsi and Tonkin frontier, in June, 1884. A pro- jected railway between Canton and Kowloon has received the Imperial sanction and a preliminary survey has been made, but it still remains a project.

Share This Page